


INAUGURAL ADDRESS „ 



OF 



PRESIDENT YEOMAN S, 









^^C 







CiasslUlljr? 
Book_ D 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED IN EASTON, PA. AUGUST 18, 1811. 



ON THE OCCASION OV 



THE AUTHOR'S INAUGURATION 



AS 



PRESIDENT OF LA FAYETTE COLLEGE. 



BY JOHN W. YJEOMANS. 






[published by the board of trustees.] 



EASTON: 
T. M. D. FORSMAN, PRINTER. 

1841, 



.5" 



The ceremony of inducting into office the Rev. John W. Yeomasts, A. M. as 
President, and the Rev. Charles W. Nassau, A. M. as Vice President of La 
Fayette College, took place in the Presbyterian Church, in Easton, Pa., on 
the 18th day of August, A. D. 1841, in the presence of the Board of Trustees, 
the Faculty, and a large audience ; on which occasion the accompanying intro- 
ductory remarks were made by James M. Porter, Esq., President of the Board 
of Trustees, to the President and Vice President, and the Inaugural Address 
was delivered by Mr. Yeomans ; and the whole is now published in pursuance 
of the unanimous request of the Board of Trustees. 



By Transfer- 

V i 6 1 32b 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

OF THE 

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 

Gentlemen : — 

The Board of Trustees of La Fayette College have 
selected you to fill the offices of President and Vice President 
of the Institution. In making the selections they were guided, 
as they believed, by a just estimate of the qualifications you 
possessed for those stations, and the more intimate acquain- 
tance which they have since been enabled to form with you, 
has fully satisfied them that they have not been disappointed 
in their expectations. 

The learned and valuable citizen under whose charge the 
institution commenced its operations, and who presided over 
it for ten years, has been removed to another sphere of 
action, where, we have every reason to hope, his labors in the 
cause of sound morals, sound religion, and sound education, 
will be crowned with abundant success. He has left among us 
the savor of a good name, and to his indefatigable and untiring 
industry, in a great measure, is the institution indebted for the 
success which has attended her infant efforts. 

We believe that the times are propitious to the great work 
of education which we have in charge. The cause is steadily 
and rapidly progressing. The school master is emphatically 
abroad in our land. Public attention is fully alive to the sub- 
ject, and its course can never be arrested. It never retrogrades 
among a virtuous and energetic people. 

Our own good Commonwealth has done much for the ad- 
vancement of this cause ; but she has never reaped the 
measure of praise which is her due, for her efforts to educate 
and enlighten her citizens. 

The venerable and philanthropic law-giver who founded 
our Commonwealth and gave it his name, in the preface to 
his frame of government made in 1682, says: "Govern- 
ments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as 
goveinments are made and moved by men, so by them are 
they ruined too. Let men be good, and the government can- 
not be bad ; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, 
let government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp 
and spoil it to their turn. That, therefore, which makes a 



good government must keep it, viz : men of wisdom and vir- 
tue, qualities that, as they descend not with worldly inheritan- 
ces, mu£t be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of 
youth, for which after ages will owe more to the care and 
prudence of founders and the successive magistracy, than to 
their parents for their private patrimonies." And in the frame 
of government itself, he enjoins that the provincial council 
shall divide itself into four distinct and proper committees. — 
One of which shall be "A Committee of Manners, Educa- 
tion, and Arts, that all wicked and scandalous living may be 
prevented, and that youth may be successfully trained up in 
virtue and useful knowledge and arts." 

During the proprietary government, much was done to 
aid private enterprize and benevolence in the establishment 
as well of schools for the education of the poor, as for affor- 
ding the means of higher education to the citizens generally. 
Our constitutions have all contained strong injunctions on 
this subject, and our statute book is full of laws to carry them 
out, and making appropriations to academies in each county 
for preparing youth for the higher branches of learning. — 
Common schools have also been established, and in part, sus- 
tained from the public Treasury, wherever the districts are 
willing to accept them, and to the credit of our citizens be it 
said, that they have been generally accepted. 

Pennsylvania has now an University and seven Colleges in 
successful operation, and some twelve hundred of her sons 
pursuing a collegiate course. So that we have now the sys- 
tem in operation from the primary school up to the highest 
grade of scholastic instruction. 

To your care is committed that part of the work pertain- 
ing to La Fayette College, an institution originating in private 
enterprize, devoted to virtuous education, and sustained, to a 
considerable extent, by the bounty of the Legislature of the 
Commonwealth. 

In the full faith that this trust has been well placed in your 
hands, we commit these youth to your care and that of your 
associates, in an humble reliance upon Divine Providence for 
its blessing upon your labors, and in the hope that you may 
be enabled, in the great day, to produce many crowns as the 
evidences of your fidelity. 



ADDRESS. 



The occasion on which we are here assembled, 
has arisen from the progress of education in our 
country. It is a cheering indication that one of the 
purposes for which this nation has been reared, is 
in the way of accomplishment. The pre-eminent 
fitness of our social and civil organization to produce 
the growth and multiply the benefits of knowledge, 
warrants the agreeable persuasion, that to promote 
and enjoy a sound, thorough, and universal educa- 
tion, is among the higher purposes for which this 
nation lives. 

The occasion claims a statement of the true and 
fundamental principles on which education, in this 
and every other country, ought to be conducted. 
We speak and hear on this subject as citizens of the 
United States of America, and as citizens of the 
world. The occasion shall suggest our theme. It is 
not a mere opportunity for leisurely and sentimental 
excursions in the fields of literature. It is not a 
time for the gorgeous display of literary treasures. 
We are assembled to consult upon the vast and 
sacred interests of the human mind. And the exer- 
cise, although, as an inaugural solemnity, it be only a 
ceremony, entitles this intelligent auditory to a new 
and prudent impulse in the cause of education. To 
impart such an impulse shall be the object of my 
present effort; and if, by the statements of truth, 
the reasonings of sound philosophy, and the appeals 
of religion, I shall avail in any measure to enlarge 
the views and enliven the zeal of my fellow-citizens 



( 6 ) 

in regard to this wide field of human labour, I shall 
neither spend my own strength for naught, nor waste 
the time and disappoint the expectations of my 
audience. 

It were superfluous to discuss, before such an 
assembly as this, the importance of education to the 
character, usefulness and happiness of individuals ; 
or its vital connexion with the real greatness of a 
nation. Little could be said on these branches of 
the subject, which has not been long since fully dis- 
cussed and settled by the intelligent citizens of this 
country, and adopted as an item of their certain 
knowledge. I therefore omit these matters of so 
frequent discourse, and raise here the serious and 
fundamental question — Whether education, in rela- 
tion to this life, be rather a means to an end, than 
the end itself? 

The end of man's existence, in the common phrase, 
is happiness. But the proverb which represents 
happiness as the distinct aim of all human action, 
involves the whole theory of intelligent and moral 
life in difficulty. On the threshold, we are always 
met by the inquiry — What is happiness ? And until 
this question shall be settled, men must be presumed, 
in their search after happiness, to pursue they know 
not what. 

The present life of man is a progress of existence ; 
a process of formation for a fixed and unchanging 
state. The final cause of his being does not respect 
himself. Although his life answers himself some 
invaluable purposes, it is not for those purposes that 
the life was given. Though he justly counts his life 
a blessing, it is not for the sake of the blessedness 
that he is caused to live. The purposes of his ex- 
istence respect the Creator. " Thou hast created 
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were 
created." And if, in consulting his own pleasure, 
the Creator has made happiness only incidental to 
his work, will he not account it a departure from his 



( 7 ) 

plan, to hold up man's enjoyment as the object of his 
being? It seems better philosophy to say, that man 
was made for his Maker's pleasure ; that he does his 
Maker's pleasure by the right operations of a moral 
intelligence ; and that to encourage and facilitate 
those right operations of a moral intelligence, there 
is subjoined to the rational and moral nature, the 
susceptibility of happiness in the operations them- 
selves, and in their results. It is therefore worthy of 
serious inquiry, whether this axiom of our philoso- 
phy be true, that the faculties of our nature are 
formed for the sake of the happiness attending or 
following their operation. The all-comprehensive 
relation of man, is his relation to the Creator ; and it 
is when we begin rather with his duty than with his 
happiness, that we seem to reach the most satisfac- 
tory solution of the problem of his being. That a 
man is most happy in or after doing certain things, 
shows that he was formed to do those things ; that 
rather by doing the things than by the pleasure of 
doing them, the end of his being, as to those doings, 
is attained ; and that the Creator is ultimately glori- 
fied rather by the deeds than by the happiness. The 
happiness may be, in his esteem, only as a tint of the 
beauty displayed by the perfect developement of 
virtue in the deeds. 

Suppose, then, we here begin : Man's highest en- 
joyment in a given course, points out that course as 
his bounden duty. Since he finds the purest and 
liveliest pleasure in the exercise of right affections, 
and the doing of right deeds, it follows that although 
he might never know a verbal precept enforcing the 
obligation, he might feel himself bound by the law 
of his nature, to keep the affections and do the 
works of love. 

Now, among the phenomena of human nature, 
there is no plainer fact, than that the mind of man 
enjoys a state of cultivation; and that the highest 
degree of such enjoyment is not only suitable, but 



( 8 ) 

eminently conducive to the perfection of the soul. 
This fact is undeniable; and equally undeniable is 
this doctrine which it teaches : That every human 
mind ought, in this life, to have the highest attainable 
cultivation. And the right order of pursuit is rather 
the perfection by means of the enjoyment, than the 
enjoyment by means of the perfection. 

It is not a philosophical account of virtue, to sup- 
pose that a man does right, for the pleasure of doing 
right. It vitiates virtue so to represent it. It does 
not faithfully describe the order of the agent's own 
mental exercises. He does right from a sense of 
right ; and his pleasure proves that his feelings agree 
with his obligations. To suppose the man does 
right for pleasure only, admits the suspicion that, if 
he could, with equal pleasure, he would as readily 
do wrong as right. But this would violate his nature 
in more respects than one ; and the argument from 
happiness, although a natural and strong, may not be 
the chief, persuasive to well-doing. Apply this prin- 
ciple to the subject of intellectual improvement. 
That the ways of mental cultivation are pleasant, is 
one of the proofs that all men ought to walk therein. 
And we are now to commend, not the pleasure, but 
the obligation. In persuading men to seek know- 
ledge for the happiness of knowledge, we must first 
prove to them that the way of knowledge is the only 
way to the highest happiness; and to prove this to 
ignorant people is not an easy work. But from the 
pleasure which every man, at times enjoys in his 
better mental exercises, he may infer the fitness and 
the design of his intellectual powers not only for 
such exercises, but for better still ; and from that 
inference to the duty of improving the understand- 
ing, the transition is natural and short. The best 
exercise of the intellect is a part of the proper em- 
ployment of man,, and the certain pleasure of this 
employment, proves it to be one which every man is 
formed to follow. 



( 9 ) 

It is matter of common observation, that mental 
cultivation is sought rather for the sake of its inci- 
dental and remote advantages, than for its own sake, 
as an acquisition of the mind. It is the errour of our 
country, perhaps of our age, that education is re- 
garded as a means of wealth or of power. The re^ 
wards of professional service invite to the pursuit 
of so much education as is indispensable to the 
chosen occupation ; and for these emoluments the 
requisite number of youth are found to improve the 
offered facilities for the needful education. But in 
what esteem do they hold the improvement of the 
mind itself? Perhaps ambitious, they wish to be 
educated for pre-eminence. Perhaps avaricious, 
they covet learning as a means of gain. Perhaps 
indolent, they choose to get a living, as some express 
it, rather by learning, than by work. Or they have 
ample means for expensive preparation to shine in the 
sphere of superiour refinement, and they count a de- 
cent education becoming to their rank, and conducive 
to their destined social elevation. Take from the 
number of our scholars all who seek education from 
motives of ambition, covetousness, indolence or 
pride, and the remainder, we fear, would be small. 

If the friends of education conduct their praise- 
worthy efforts, with exclusive regard for other ends 
besides the character and condition of the educated 
minds, they will be liable, from defects in their plans 
and aims, to leave their education defective in its 
accomplishment. Our popular theory on this sub- 
ject, ought to be carefully revised. And although 
correct principles might not find, in the present 
state of our country, a ready and perfect application, 
they always claim a prominent place in the system 
we propose and recommend. Suppose it to be true 
that public sentiment, or the character, or any cir- 
cumstances of our people, resist the plan of educa- 
tion which the true philosophy would recommend ; 
yet let our theory be right ; and if we educate but 
2 



( io ) 

in part, let our work be imperfect only in extent; 
and let our partial education be to a complete one, 
strictly as a part to the whole. Let us begin our 
course in a right direction; and then, when the 
breeze of circumstances favours, it will quicken our 
progress towards the desired haven. 

While, therefore, I propose to state the theory of 
education suggested by the constitution of the mind, 
and commended by the common sense and expe- 
rience of mankind ; and while I shall not be sus- 
pected of extravagant expectations respecting its 
immediate adoption, I will not conceal my hope 
that a propitious change is at hand. The present 
state of our country favours the correction of some 
practical errours, the inconvenience of which is be- 
ginning to be felt. 

It is one of the plainest and most simple truths 
pertaining to the nature of the mind, that cultivation 
is demanded by its constitution. We judge thus, 
because rational exercises are, to all minds, a plea- 
sure ; because they are so irrespective of either 
immediate or remote results, and because the mind 
spontaneously exercises itself upon the objects of 
its knowledge in the best manner admitted by its 
degree of cultivation. Intellectual exercise has a 
pleasantness in itself, which is a quality or property 
of the exercise, and not separable from it in the 
view of the mind. The understanding has a constant 
propensity to action without other motive than the 
action itself. As the healthy muscular system often 
moves by what seems an intrinsic property of its life, 
and not by any consideration of results, so the mind 
rejoices in its appropriate activity; and the more, 
for the greater expansion, harmony, clearness and 
strength of its operations. It delights in an easy 
and wide command of knowledge ; in seeing things 
as they are, in their inherent properties, and their 
mutual relations ; in forming its judgment with truth, 
and maintaining an intelligent confidence in its own 
justness of conception and reasoning. 



The supposition that the mind always contem- 
plates some result of its own improvement, distinct 
from the improved state of its own exercises, dero- 
gates from the dignity of intellect, and imputes to its 
operations a sordidness unwwthy of its nature. The 
great charm of the mental exercises, whether of 
thought or of feeling, is what may be called their 
disinterestedness. Observe a person in conversa- 
tion. If he proceeds with evident pleasure from 
social affection, if his words and thoughts appear 
like the overflowings of lively and happy feeling, he 
appears in a proper and amiable character. But 
suspect him of seeking any thing not embraced in 
the exercise itself, and coldly consulting a benefit 
distinct and remote from the present employment, 
and you regard him with displeasure. Disjoin the 
motive from the exercise, and you take away the 
beauty of the scene. The social formalities move 
by constraint, and the chillness of a heartless me- 
chanism pervades the whole. Unless the social in- 
tercourse of men is prompted and pervaded by the 
social affections, it offends. The spontaneous im- 
pulse, immediate, without calculations of remote 
advantage; the speaking of the mouth, not from the 
frigid suggestions of reason, but from the abundance 
of a heart chastened and regulated by reason ; — 
these are the properties of all social exercises, 
which are regarded as true, lovely, and of good 
report. 

Let the intellectual exercises be judged by the 
same rule. All minds are susceptible of cultivation, 
and all minds rejoice most in their best exercises. 
The alternative now before us is, that the mind be 
educated either from regard for the state of cultiva- 
tion, or from regard to a derivative benefit. Sup- 
pose we adopt the latter, and let the object of edu- 
cation be wealth. Nature herself teaches the 
doctrine of our Saviour, that a man's life consisteth 
notin the abundance of the things that he possesseth. 



( 12) 

Material treasures in themselves, as an object of 
affection, can afford the mind no satisfaction. Affec- 
tion placed on worldly goods is misplaced, and per- 
verted. The man with such an affection is miserable. 
Miser is his name. And while the strongest pro- 
pensity of the mind is towards the treasures of this 
world, it reveals its incongruity with the mental 
constitution. Man was formed to use these treasures, 
but not to love them supremely. They are not the 
good to which the intellectual powers of man are to 
be subservient; but they are a part of the means of 
obtaining the chief good of the mind. It is no more 
manifest that man was not formed to breathe pure 
oxygen, than that he was not formed to seek worldly 
gain, honour, or pleasure, as the end of mental im- 
provement The perverted affection fixed on such 
an object, disturbs the harmony of the mental ex- 
ercises, makes the pursuit of improvement irksome, 
misleads the mind's activity, and often defeats its 
own ends. There is a kind of desire for these 
things belonging to man's nature. He has proper and 
important occasion to use them. They are intended 
to promote some inferiour ends of his existence. But 
that natural desire for them, which will prompt him 
to secure them in due measure, and by proper 
means, is the only affection for them, consistent with 
the dignity and happiness of the man. To make 
these the end of mental cultivation, deprives the 
mind of its dignity, and overlooks the prime and 
pure motive of all just efforts for education. 

Since knowledge and cultivation are agreeable 
to the mind, we judge, that such degree of know- 
ledge as will afford most pleasure, is the nearest to 
the mind's perfection of intelligence; and that such 
state of cultivation as will render the exercise of 
conception, reason, and taste most agreeable to the 
nature of things, and to our own feelings, is the near- 
est to a perfect state of mental discipline. 

The mind begins its existence in an infancy analo- 



( 13 ) 

gous to the infancy of the body. It is created in a 
rudimental state. Its powers are to be drawn forth 
and trained by a treatment suited to their nature. 
Its capacities, its susceptibilities, its character, in- 
tellectual and moral, are developed by degrees. 
And this, so far as we know, is a law of all earthly 
life. 

The body in its growth must have nourishment, 
its proper exercise, medicines for its diseases, and 
due protection against violence; and as for its train- 
ing, who justifies any other education for the body 
than that which tends to what is regarded as bodily 
perfection ? The mind is formed by a process 
analogous to that of the formation of the body. 
None of its powers are perfect at first ; but by 
nourishment, exercise, remedies for its disorders, 
and protection from injury, it must reach its perfec- 
tion. This is the work of education. The human 
soul begins its life under a process of education, 
which is in some form to continue through the term 
of its earthly being. 

What then is the work of education ? This ques- 
tion relates to the whole life of the mind in the 
present and the future state ; and brings before us 
the chief points with which we are now concerned. 

In relation to the nature and objects of education, 
for the purposes of the present life, the views of 
men are governed by the leading passion. If wealth 
be the man's chief earthly good, the acquisition of 
wealth will be, in his view, the end for which he will 
educate either himself or his children ; and the 
education he selects will be just such, in kind and 
degree, as will, in his judgment, render his occupa- 
tion most lucrative. It is plain to all observers of 
the course of things in our country, that the cause of 
education is extensively controlled by a regard for 
riches. The education selected for the majority is 
that which will cost least and gain most. 

As to the kind : Is the person destined to live by 



(14) 

agriculture ? The kind of education for him is sup- 
posed to be such as will most aid his tilling of the 
ground and getting most money for his products. 
He must be, soul and body, a farmer. The standard 
of his mind's perfection is adjusted to his temporal 
occupation. The benefits of education to his other 
relations, are forgotten in the absorbing qualifications 
of the farmer. The knowledge and discipline which 
would fit him for any other sphere, would be superflu- 
ous. The brief term of the business portion of his life, 
and the kind of business which is to yield his body 
a livelihood, determine the studies for the improve- 
ment of his mind. The employment which is to 
occupy the working portion of each four and twenty 
hours, in the working days of the week, during the 
working season of the year, fixes the land-marks of 
his intellectual course. The pretext of a provident 
and lucrative industry devours the substance of his 
resources, and leaves for his hours, days and months 
of leisure for mental improvement, only the crumbs 
which fall from the table of his avarice. 

Hence, as to the branches of learning: To 
read, and write, and cypher to the rule of three, are 
indispensable accomplishments, even for the farmer. 
The importance of these branches is thought to be 
self-evident. Yet, if I mistake not, it needs a little 
argument to prove it; and that little argument is 
precisely the same which recommends all the 
branches of a complete education. These accom- 
plishments are called indispensable, and in a high 
sense they are so. But why ? The mere ability to 
write one's name, or to read the signature of one's 
neighbour, or to write or read a note of hand, no 
more promotes the art of sowing or of reaping well, 
than the ability to produce a piece of elegant lite- 
rature. The art of reading news and advertise- 
ments no more helps the strength and skill of the 
farmer, than the free command of the literary stores 
of all the languages. Why then are these arts 



( 15 ) 

indispensable ? The secret is, they are convenient ; 
and that for purposes not embraced in farming itself* 
but pertaining to sundry relations of the man. Then, 
how can it be shown that the farmer would not find 
his convenience in understanding botany, and mine- 
ralogy, and geology, and chemistry. It is a very 
plausible presumption, that one who has so much to 
do with seeds, and plants, and earthy compositions 
and decompositions, would find such knowledge 
especially convenient. It is not so easy,, as some 
may imagine, to designate just that kind of education 
which the argument from convenience, would re- 
commend for a farmer, short of a general discipline 
in all the sciences. 

As to the degree: What shall be the measure? 
By what shall we determine how much knowledge 
or mental discipline of any kind, shall serve the 
necessities or the convenience of a given occupation? 
How extensive a knowledge of language, or of the 
intellectual discipline acquired by studying language., 
might serve a man in obtaining the most perfect 
knowledge of his art ? How much is the least that 
will make him as intelligent in the means, methods 
and results of his industry, as he might be? How 
much mathematical science is the most that a far- 
mer can employ with pleasure and profit in his 
occupation ? How little philosophy is the least he 
can do with, and how much is the most he can 
profitably use ? Point out the bounds of the prac- 
tical utility of education to the industry of man ; for 
until these bounds are clearly shown, it is presump- 
tuous and perilous to measure our intellectual 
necessities by what seem to be the calls of the tem- 
poral occupation. 

For the mere purposes of money-getting, then, 
the kind or degree of education short of the highest, 
and applicable with advantage to a given occupation, 
cannot be clearly defined. The saving, even in 
dollars and cents, by limiting the mental cultivation? 



( 16) 

is too uncertain to be our guide in the solemn work 
of training the rational and moral powers of man. 
And from our different temporal pursuits themselves, 
we have this argument against the prevalent depres- 
sion of the standard of education. 

But the education of the human mind, for only 
the present life, has to do with yet higher things 
than these. The body is not the man. The life 
of the body is not the life of the man. The com- 
fort and perfection of the body may be fully provid- 
ed for, and yet the man may fail of the chief earthly 
end of his being. Or the body may live in com- 
parative privation, and yet the chief ends of life, as 
to this world itself, may be accomplished. Think 
of the exalted nature of mind; its capacities, its 
susceptibilities, and its certain destiny; and how 
can we doubt that the chief part of its design, is to 
be sought in the cultivation and exercise of its own 
powers? The higher pleasures of man's earthly 
life, flow in the channels of clear and well directed 
thought. This principle shines in onr nature like 
a beam of light. The sound mind enjoys thought. 
Exercise is its pleasure ; and the degree of the pleas- 
ure is as the degree of mental cultivation and intel- 
ligence. Let men be educated in the habit of clear 
and just thought, then furnish them with knowledge, 
and their happiness will largely spring from their 
own intellectual exercises. To say nothing here of 
the results, either temporal or everlasting, of this 
mental employment ; if the workings of a disciplined 
and enlightened understanding are delightful, ought 
not those workings themselves, to be provided for 
by education? Ought they not to be the object of 
education? Is not their blissfulness the internal 
evidence, that the mind was formed for such opera- 
tions, and that it can accomplish, by no others, the 
end of its existence? And this is an object worthy 
of the mind. Is it not worthy of a rational and 
moral nature, to prepare to enjoy itself; to be hap- 



( 17 ) 

py at home ; to find occupation with its own resour- 
ces; to make its own intelligence and reason, a 
river of life to its feelings? And whatever ends of 
its existence, out of itself, may arise from its rela- 
tions to either its maker or its fellow-creatures, — will 
not those ends be, in all respects, best fulfilled, by 
means of its own best states and exercises? Such 
facts amount to a virtual demonstration, and the 
only one possible, from the constitution and course 
of nature, that the highest attainable degree of 
knowledge and discipline is due, by the law of 
nature, to every human mind. 

Let us turn, however, to other considerations per- 
taining to the present life. The relations of every 
man are manifold ; and no one of these relations 
can be a just gauge of his education. The farmer 
is not a farmer only. The mechanic is more than a 
mechanic. And the interest of his temporal occu- 
pation alone demands, in his economy of life, only 
an inferiour regard. That farmer is the head of a 
family, and to feed and clothe the members of his 
family, is the least he has to do as their head. He 
must nourish and train their minds ; and to do this, 
he must understand their nature and their interests; 
the relations as well of the mind as of the body. 
That farmer is a member of a social community, to 
which he owes the issues of a cultivated understand- 
ing and a pure heart; to whose improvement he 
ought to be a perpetual contributor, and to which, 
if he would receive freely from it, he must freely 
give. That farmer is a member of the civil society; 
whose government he is bound to understand, uphold 
and obey; whose interests are, in a measure, com- 
mitted to his care ; for whose well-being he is, in 
his degree, responsible, and whose destiny he in 
part controls. Of the man's earthly relations, these 
are the highest ; and in them reside the strongest of 
the temporal motives for his complete education. 
When is that man furnished for the temporal pur- 
3 



( 18) 

poses of his life ? Is it when he is qualified to till 
the ground, to ply his mechanical art, to buy and to 
sell ? Be it so, that the different occupations of men 
require different kinds and degrees of education. 
Have not all these persons a common circle of re- 
lations? The common labourer may need less 
knowledge of a particular kind, to work his simple 
tool, and to earn his daily wages, than the lawyer to 
manage his causes, the divine to teach the doctrines 
and enforce the duties of religion, or the statesman 
to appoint and execute the forms of wise legislation. 
But as the head of a family, the builder of a house- 
hold, a constituent of the social community, a citizen 
of a free country, and a supporter of popular govern- 
ment, he requires intelligence and cultivation equal 
with those of the statesman or the divine. Here 
every man should be a statesman in wisdom as he is 
in responsibility. He has personal concern with the 
government of his country. The most profound and 
vital questions of state are to be decided indirectly 
by his vote, and on his influence over the councils of 
the nation, depend the security and the value of his 
own capital and industry. Shall such a man be ed- 
ucated only for the farm, the shop, or the counter ? 
Intrusted with his own welfare, social, political and 
religious; and unavoidably concerned with the wel- 
fere of his fellow-citizens ; a citizen of a nation whose 
interests are implicated in the policy of every nation 
on the globe, and whose prosperity depends on the 
Intelligence and virtue of all the people; a director 
of a government formed and modified by the people 
themselves; shall he be educated with no regard 
whatever to these great affairs ? Between his pri- 
vate pursuits and his public relations, there is indeed 
an immense inequality of importance; and our solemn 
question is, whether it be in the mould of his private 
pursuits or of his public relations that his understand- 
ing shall be cast. 

Against these reasonings as against all true and 



( 19 ) 

legitimate arguments for the reformation of mankind, 
we have the objection of practical difficulty. There 
Is the stubbornness of intractable understandings to 
which our theory yields no indulgence. There is the 
costliness of education compared with the means of 
the majority. There is the immeasurable dispropor- 
tion between the powers of ignorance to be subdued 
and the supposect powers of knowledge to conquer. 
There is the seeming mutual repugnance between 
sundry manual employments and the tastes of culti- 
vated minds. These difficulties, and others of their 
kindred, are formidable ; they will discourage and 
retard improvement which they may not finally pre- 
vent. But they dwindle before the consideration, 
that most intellectual intractability stands in a pre- 
judice fostered by prevalent ignorance, and want of 
mental cultivation themselves ; that the costliness of 
a commodity is commonly as its rareness, and not in- 
directly a result of it; that in well-concerted and 
resolute expeditions of knowledge against ignorance, 
one chases a thousand, and two put ten thousand to 
flight; and that necessity may always be trusted to 
reconcile the highest cultivation of mind, to the low- 
est useful employment, — even if such reconciliation 
were not an effect of true mental refinement itself! 
We are not required to distrust our arguments for 
education, on account of their looking towards mea- 
sures now impracticable, and towards results beyond 
all present expectation. Our obligations contem- 
plate not such undertakings alone as are immediate- 
ly practicable. We are accountable for the begin- 
nings of good enterprizes to be finished by our suc- 
cessors; and if we establish principles which are true, 
and unchangeable, we may discharge our duty, al- 
though it should be the work of other, nay, of all 
coming generations, to carry those principles out. 
We may assert, therefore, with the greatest assu- 
rance, that the principle of educating a man for only 
his temporal station, requires nothing less than that 



( 20 ) 

every individual should be educated well; that all 
should be disciplined to clear, logical, and habitual 
thought ; that the relish for intellectual occupation 
should be awakened in every mind ; and that all 
should have the means of knowledge within their 
reach, and feel the proper motives to improve them. 

But the great argument for education is drawn from 
the life to come. There is strong probability that the 
intellectual character of the human soul in the world 
to come, will be forever affected by the education 
here. 

For, first, the necessity of education is not a result 
of the fall of man from righteousness ; and is not re- 
moved by the spiritual renovation. It is not because 
the race of man is a fallen race, that every individual 
is born in infancy, and comes to his perfection by de- 
gress. Nor does any moral change in this world su- 
persede education for any of the purposes for which 
education is ever required. The infancy of under- 
standing is entirely compatible with moral purity. 
The mind needs aid in its developement, not on ac- 
count of its moral infirmity, but from the dependence 
of its nature. The necessity of education belongs to 
man as a human being, not as a sinful one ; and what- 
ever be the spiritual process of clothing the mind 
with the heavenly perfection, it cannot be supposed 
to involve a miraculous preparation of the intellectu- 
al powers for their most harmonious and effectual 
operation hereafter. No hint of such a change ap- 
pears in the scriptures, nor in any known conditions 
of the heavenly blessedness. 

And, secondly, the revealed connexion between 
the present and the future state of the mind, 
strengthens the probability that the different degrees 
of intellectual discipline in this life create everlast- 
ing distinctions of mental character. 

We have a suggestion on this point from contrast- 
ing, in a single particular, the mind with the body. 
The body betrays a nature incompatible with im- 



(21 ) 

mortality. Its present phenomena raise frequent and 
perplexing questions, concerning the true theory of 
its future state. They so disagree with our notions 
of the future life, that with respect to the everlast- 
ing condition of the body, they surround us with 
difficulties,, insurmountable except by the supposi- 
tion of some essential preliminary change. The 
grades of earthly perfection in the body, are no 
approximation towards an immortal constitution. 
But this material organization, before it can reach a 
changeless, indestructible state, must be re-formed. 
It must be sown a natural body, it must be raised a 
spiritual body. The system of corporeal agencies 
and susceptibilities, in the human constitution, is to 
be transformed and modified, to correspond with any 
scriptural and philosophical intimations of the 
future state. 

But the mind suggests its immortality by its very 
constitution and operations here. It needs no change 
to fit it for an endless being. Its present nature and 
organization raise no difficulties in our theory of its 
future life. It is as fit for existence in a spiritual 
world, as in a natural. For even, here, a large and 
most important portion of its exercises, have no 
connexion with matter as their source or support. 
And its imperfections themselves, so far as they con- 
sist in a limitation of its powers, are not only adapted, 
but destined, to exist forever. 

Now, that all human understandings will be placed, 
in the future life, on the same level of power and 
excellence, we ought not to take for granted. — 
Analogy favours the opinion, that the results of in- 
tellectual discipline are everlasting. And while we 
follow that only guide in this matter, we may observe, 
that no analogy will help us to obliterate from our 
views of the future state, the most familiar intellect- 
ual distinctions. The different orders of created 
understanding, will never be assimilated to each 
©ther. The angel and the man will never be con- 



(22) 

founded. If any point in the doctrine of our immor- 
tality is settled, it is that man will forever be man; 
that the general laws of mind, which govern our 
experience here, will prevail in our experience here- 
after; and hence, that one human intellect will for- 
ever differ from another human intellect in glory. 

And what intellectual distinctions can be more 
confidently expected to exist forever among men, 
than those which result from education in this pre- 
paratory state ? What distinctions are worthier of 
everlasting preservation than they? There is the 
superiour self-command., and the expansive and har- 
monious movement of the intellectual powers ac- 
quired by rigorous discipline; there is the capacity 
of perceiving and enjoying the remoter relations of 
things, of higher views of the beauty and sublimity 
of mind, and especially of the intellectual and moral 
glory of God. Shall all such noble fruits of mental 
industry here, be merged in undistinguishable uni- 
formity of character hereafter ? We dare not assert 
it ; but rather presume, that along the course of the 
mind's unending progress, will run the traces of the 
earthly discipline, to graduate the intellectual glory 
of the soul, and fix its place in the ranks of light and 
power. 

It contravenes no revealed law of the divine 
administration, to suppose that the degrees of intel- 
lectual perfection among the spirits of just men, 
made perfect, will depend upon education here ; 
and that only to him that hath a disciplined under- 
standing, will be given the everlasting benefits of it. 
Indeed, this view seems so agreeable to some notable 
rules of future retribution, that it can scarcely be 
regarded otherwise than as just and true. We cer- 
tainly know one respect in which the future state of 
the mind is determined by the discipline of the 
present life. There are forever distinguished among 
the heavenly throng, those who come out of great 
tribulation, and whose peculiar experience here, 



( 23 ) 

worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. It is the discipline <?f the present 
life, that leaves on those minds an everlasting and 
glorious impression. And this, too, in agreement 
with the laws of the mental nature. The superiour 
bliss and glory of those disciplined minds, are the 
proper effects of their earthly experience on the 
spiritual constitution. Their spirits thus become 
more delicately adjusted to their condition, and 
more keenly sensitive to the beatific influence of 
God, and to the purity and glory of their heavenly 
state. Since then the moral feelings,, improved ac- 
cording to the laws of the mind, by the earthly dis- 
cipline, distinguish themselves forever by the legiti- 
mate fruits of their improvement, they furnish one 
clear case in which the temporal experience produ- 
ces its proper effects upon the everlasting character 
and condition of the mind. 

That the gradations of human understanding in the 
life to come, will be sunk and lost, that the weak mind 
will become strong as the strongest, that the undisci- 
plined and intractable will share in the fruits of the 
highest cultivation, seems so improbable, that the 
supposition betrays an air of rashness. Will the 
most wayward and uncultivated mind that may be 
raised by divine mercy to heaven, enjoy forever an 
equal intellectual range with a Newton or an Ed- 
wards ? The rescued slave of vice, who may have 
besotted and debauched his understanding into an 
instrument of appetite and passion, — will he enjoy 
with a Milton or a Bacon, the same intellectual per- 
fection, range through the same fields of science, and 
find the same treasures there? The supposition 
seems to contradict; I do not say the attribute of 
divine mercy, for infinite mercy is equal even to such 
a redemption; but it seems to contradict many sug- 
gestions of the Bible, the conclusions of the soundest 
philosophy, and the acts of God in other things. 

These views of our intellectual immortality, must 



(24) 

not be confounded with views of the moral state, 
nor blended with the views of future happiness, 
except so far as that happiness is modified by the 
exercise of the understanding. The bliss of pure 
affections may be perfect, while the pleasures of the 
freest, widest, and most harmonious exercise of the 
understanding may not be enjoyed. While the un- 
educated Christian, in his meek sense of ignorance, 
is conscious of no lack of enjoyment, he admires 
the greater knowledge of his educated neighbour, 
and would have a more cultivated understanding if 
he could. His religious faith may stand in full 
strength. He may have the liveliest sense of his 
own peace with God, and his Christain hope may be 
an anchor to his soul, both sure and steadfast ; while, 
if he could, he would have larger views of God and 
of the universe, than he now enjoys. He has all 
the joys of the heart, but fewer pleasures of the 
understanding. Who does not covet earnestly the 
best intellectual gifts? What man would not choose, 
if permitted to choose, the mental powers of an 
angel ? 

We may affirm, then, with a persuasion scarcely 
less confident than pleasing, that the intellect of 
man forms here, its character for immortality. The 
treasures and discipline of the understanding endure 
forever. Doubtless, certain kinds of knowledge 
shall vanish away. Many a dogma of false and 
proud philosophy will be hereafter unknown; as 
many a vain speculation of former days is already 
forgotten. Sciences now elaborate and captivating, 
may then disappear, like hues of the morning cloud 
before the flood of day. But shall we consign the 
improvement of the mind itself to the same doom with 
its crude and evanescent fancies? These powers of 
conception and reasoning, like the pure affections of 
the heart, are preparing for endless exercises. And 
here is the great argument for a thorough education ; 
the motive of an everlasting consequence. It opens 



( 25 ) 

before us a field where the advantages of intellectual 
training appear in boundless exaltation and expan- 
sion; — intellectual advantages indeed, intellectual 
only ; we do not claim for them alone, the solemnity 
and worth of a moral character ; — yet such advan^ 
tages of one man above another, as angels enjoy 
above men, and as God enjoys above all. 

Such warrant has the parent, who is training his 
child through a course of rigid mental discipline, 
for believing that he is giving to that growing under- 
standing an imperishable character. The motives 
for a thorough education are in this view infinitely 
magnified. To train a mortal only, were an inferiour 
employment ; but to train an immortal is a higher 
work. It is a man, and not a brute, that we are 
rearing. Intellectual powers are preparing under 
our hand for everlasting operation; to act forever 
with the greater expansion, energy, and blissfulness, 
for the discipline we are giving them here. The 
parent, in the right education of his child, confers 
on that intellect an unfading distinction. The 
touches of his pencil are indelible. He "paints for 
immortality." The undying and unchanging mind 
retains the impressions of its education, while itself 
endures ; and in the eternity of its being, it will 
show its training, and thence receive a ceaseless 
enlargement of its overflowing blessedness. 

The comprehensive conclusion from our present 
view of this great subject, may be stated thus : That 
as the human mind arrives at its proper perfection 
only by education, every man requires education 
to fit him for the purposes of his present life; 
and that every human being has in this life, imperious 
claim to the highest state of mental cultivation which 
circumstances place within his reach. Hence, too, 
it follows, that the great business of each genera- 
tion, is to educate the generation that comes after 
it ; and that the most ample and efficient arrange- 
ments for the thorough and universal education of the 
4 



(26) 

people, form no small part of the true and worthy 
policy of all good government. 

The reasonings above presented,, seem to over- 
look the deplorable extent to which the people 
undervalue education, and the prevalent unwilling- 
ness to bestow the requisite time, labour and money 
on its attainment. The argument aims not to 
accommodate this evil, but to overcome it. The 
truth of our theory ought not to be suspected on 
account of any difficulties in the application. Many 
an important doctrine, although true, and believed 
to be true, as God's own word, is resisted in its ap- 
plication by the most inveterate and cherished sen- 
timents of the human mind. It suffices in any such 
case to know, that the change proposed contemplates 
undeniable improvement, and discreetly consults the 
nature and the laws of human perfectibility. We 
know indeed, and grieve to know, that education is 
undervalued by most of our people. We fear it is 
held in due esteem by few. It is always most 
despised by those who have least of it themselves. 
But where is the man who thinks lightly of know- 
ledge or of mental discipline which he himself 
possesses ? If, nevertheless, many who have educa- 
tion in respectable degrees, err in some of their 
habitual views of its higher and more solemn rela- 
tions,, they only betray their share of our common 
infirmity. From such errour among our more en- 
lightened people, arises a peremptory call for the 
argument above presented. The reasoning, though 
by no means new, is offered with an humble, but 
confident, persuasion of its truth and efficacy, and 
with an earnest desire that its force may be tried. 

We remind our enlightened fellow-citizens, that 
this plea for education is not a human device. It 
comes from God, combined, by an adorable philoso- 
phy, with the leading precepts of heavenly wisdom 
and love. The plan of divine culture puts the un- 
derstanding and the heart of man together; and 



f 27 ) 

exhorts and commands, in language above all Imita- 
tion, but scarcely admissible, on any other principle, 
by the literary taste of its own age : If thou incline 
thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to 
understanding ; if thou criest after knowledge, and 
liftest up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seek- 
est her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid 
treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the 
Lord and find the knowledge of God. Can such a 
requisition be answered by a pure heart without 
a cultivated understanding ? Is not this single sen- 
tence the comprehensive argument for a complete 
education, and the true and safe guide of its aims? 

In one word, the needful and perfect education of 
the human mind, is of the Gospel. The proper 
Teacher of man's understanding, is the Saviour of 
his soul. In him was life, and the life was the light 
of men. He revives in the dark and dormant mind 
the lively and healthy thirst for knowledge, strength- 
ens and governs that mind, by faith in his own 
power and love, spreads out the universe of mystery 
before it, and urges it, by all the motives of an ever- 
lasting life, to search those mysteries out. His word 
and his works, the two great volumes of his revela- 
tion, are fields for the discipline of the human 
understanding, and nurseries for the pure affections 
of the heart. Only prepare the mind to present its 
utmost expansion to their influence, and the work of 
education is done. 

A just view of the claims of every human mind to 
a full education, disagrees with the notion that those 
only are to pursue learning and mental discipline, 
who manifest an original taste for such employments, 
and a peculiar aptitude for success in them. In the 
light of our present discussion, this notion appears 
extremely false and injurious. It presumes that the 
blind and perverse understanding of a child will do 
its office better with indulgence, than under resolute 
checks and guides; that waywardness may work the 



(28) 

health of the mind, and yield the proper fruit of 
mental action. It helps parents to various excuses 
for neglecting the scientific education of their chil- 
dren ; leaves in the lower circles of human intelli- 
gence, those who might rise into the higher ; and 
forfeits for them the everlasting and invaluable bles- 
sing of disciplined minds. It surrenders immortal 
powers to those low propensities which render them 
averse to discipline, and gives them over to a do- 
minion under which no reflecting parent can be wil- 
ling that his child should be bound. What is that 
child's want of aptitude for learning ? Dislike for 
the regular and efficient exercises of the mind ; 
aversion to the strict control and proper direction 
of the thoughts ; and a proneness to yield them up 
to every idle influence that may stir around them. 
It is one of the fruits of sin. It partakes largely of 
the essential nature of sin. And shall such a prin- 
ciple be indulged and fostered by a mistaken and 
pernicious prudence? Can parental policy or af- 
fection overlook such perverseness as a foible, and 
let it fix the intellectual destiny forever? Shut up 
that mind to its work. Guard it from distraction. 
Tempt and guide its activity, according to the laws 
of its nature. Withhold from it the liberty of choice 
between education and no education, and between 
one kind of education and another. Give it no 
alternative. It is formed for the severe, diligent and 
blissful exercise of thought, and to hold that exer- 
cise now and forever, as a part of its perfect life. I 
conjure the parent to take solemn heed how he 
thrusts his own negligence or indecision, his covet- 
ousness or his prejudice., between the undying 
understanding of his child and its proper perfec- 
tion. 

The doctrine of this discourse, I hardly need say, 
involves the important and seasonable admonition — 
that, to begin and conduct the mental cultivation of 
any person, male or female, with reference to a par- 



(29 ) 

ticular temporal occupation, is but a very inadequate 
method of compassing the ends of education. The 
results of such training will continue with the mind, 
after the objects have passed away. That intellect 
is on its way to an everlasting state, and shall its 
whole structure be built only for its passage ? The 
person so trained, may seem peculiarly fitted for a 
niche in this world. He may get through life with a 
seeming propriety and' success. But how many of 
the temporal offices of a human mind, must he fail 
to perform ; — offices, I mean, which belong not to a 
few peculiar stations only, but to man as man ? How 
many of the weightier matters of truth and right, 
must he omit, for lack of capacity to handle them ? 
And how does he compare, in intellectual stature, 
wdth the perfect man ? While, from the unavoidable 
necessities of the present life, men betake themselves 
to their various occupations, each will the better 
suit his place for the better general education. But 
to leave out all knowledge and discipline, except 
what seems indispensable to the temporal calling, is 
to make but a part of a man. 

Our usage of making education so nearly all pro- 
fessional, begets the opinion, that the main design of 
a liberal education, is to make professional men. 
Most of our educated men seek practice in the so- 
called, learned professions ; and as the zeal for edu- 
cation grows, these professions become unprofitable. 
The progress of education multiplies the practition- 
ers, and lessens the demand for their service. Our 
system must either proceed on new principles, or 
soon cease. This appropriation of learning, to par- 
ticular professions, is coming to its end. Our course 
of education must be regarded as a provision, not 
for raising up physicians, lawyers, divines ; but for 
raising" up men, who are to exercise their under- 
standings in a world without end ; but, who, in this 
life, may be merchants, mechanics, farmers, or what- 
ever their circumstances may determine. 



( 30 ) 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees of La 
Fayette College : — In this declaration of the princi- 
ples on which the only adequate system of education 
can be reared and upheld, I entertain the cheering 
confidence of your enlightened and hearty approba- 
tion. You are associated for a sacred purpose. The 
interests of an invaluable cause, are largely in your 
hands. In connexion with my respected and ac- 
complished associates, I appear as your organ, to 
announce what we here propose to do. We propose 
to carry out, so far as our patronage and abilities will 
permit, the principles just now set forth. We pledge 
onrselves to give the youth, who may be committed 
to our care, our utmost aid and encouragement, in 
forming both the understanding and the heart, for 
an excellent glory in time and eternity. We go to 
our labonr as servants of God. We depend on his 
power and grace for success. And we bespeak the 
prayers of our friends that the needful aid may be 
afforded us. We are not ambitious that our insti- 
tution should be great, except as it may be useful. 
If the College may be distinguished for the good 
hehaviour of its students, for its security against the 
prevailing vices of the world, for diligence in study, 
for proficiency in thorough mental discipline, and for 
the cultivation of those affections which are lovely 
and of good report, we shall be satisfied with such 
numbers of youth as may find it an advantage and a 
pleasure to come to us for instruction. And we are 
happy in believing, that such a kind and degree of 
success will fulfil the desires of the ardent and able 
friend of education, by whose singular energy and 
perseverance, the institution was begun. 

We put our hands to this work in a time auspi- 
cious for the cause of education in our country. Our 
nation is rising with encouraging rapidity in the scale 
of intelligence and general culture. With capital 
sufficient to give our industry an ample reward, and 
industry sufficient to render our capital prolific ; in a 



(31 ) 

country so alive with labour-saving machinery, that 
most of our skilful labourers can live by working one- 
half the time, and give the other to the improvement 
and the pleasures of the mind ; with a social and ci- 
vil organization, fraught with motives and facilities 
for popular education ; with institutions of learning of 
every desirable rank ; with a press, which pours out 
knowledge like a flood, a growing taste for reading 
among our people, and the means and benefits of edu- 
cation multiplying every year; if we do not become 
distinguished among the nations for mental cultiva- 
tion, we shall not be faithful to ourselves. The na- 
tural course of our affairs presents a brightening pros- 
pect of intellectual glory. An era of knowledge is 
opening upon our land. Scarce a family of tempe- 
rance and order can you now enter, in which the 
parents are not striving to give their children a better 
education than they had themselves. Thousands of 
families are rising in their generations from intel- 
lectual darkness into light; while none are falling, 
except in those hopeless cases where drunkennesshas 
eaten out the soul. Such signs of advancement are 
ground of reasonable hope for the future. Let our 
people quench, as if they will, they easily can, that 
one fearful element, which devours knowledge and 
intellect and every thing fair and good, and our 
hopes may be firm and cheering. Our mental firma- 
ment will be cloudless. The time draws nigh when 
what is now called a liberal education will be com- 
paratively common. What are now colleges will be- 
come more nearly the institutions of every county, 
and populous town. Our common schools will be- 
come prosperous and efficient seminaries of the sci- 
ences, and may I not add, thriving nurseries of truth 
and virtue. May such a day come quickly. And 
then let our liberty, as our people would have it, be 
unbounded ; let the people, in their primary assem- 
blies, decree, not only who their rulers and their le- 
gislators shall be, but what their rulers and legisla- 



(32) 

tors shall do ; those people, being intelligent, will un- 
derstand their interests, and being virtuous, will pur- 
sue them. Then let Europe, while sending us as she 
does, some of her nobler spirits, still pour forth upon 
us, from her bottomless caverns, her dark floods of 
ignorance and vice ; if we but maintain our diligence, 
we shall not be overflown. As for the fathers, we 
will do what we can to reform them and to restrain 
and neutralize their influence till they pass from the 
stage; but the children we will educate. It is a 
work of divine philanthropy ; and in its prosecution, 
we may hope for the aid of One whose power can sus- 
tain and forward our labour, and whose mercy will 
bestow its rewards. 



